


Wings to the Weak, Grace to the Strong

by voleuse



Category: Tacoma (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21870112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: In this life you spend time running from depravity.The mission debrief. Or, rather, decompression.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Wings to the Weak, Grace to the Strong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mr_DeBlob](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mr_DeBlob/gifts).



> Set not long after the events of the game.

**Amitjyoti "Amy" Ferrier**  
She hadn't really believed she'd be the one to rescue the first, _the very first_ AI. ODIN, 108 years old and evolving the entire time. 

Also, there had been a 100% likelihood that Venturis would have murdered her if she slipped up during the retrieval. She hadn't had a lot of time to ponder it, between the leaked documents hitting the press and the sudden activation of her subcontractor status with Venturis. She hadn't even had time to make contact with Tacoma's crew, to get the first-person accounts of the entire disaster.

The rendezvous with H was, thus, furtive and hurried. (She had apologized to ODIN beforehand, that she had to hide him inside a fairly ramshackle keyboard case.) H had zero poker-face as well, it turned out, because they were almost literally vibrating during the hand-off at the CNAAPP outpost. 

"Next," Amy had bitten out, aware of the Alexadrones zipping overhead, surveillance sensors whirring as they made their deliveries. "Papers?"

H cleared their throat and focused on Amy, even though their hands were dancing across ODIN's travel-case compulsively. "Storage locker 27 at the Phillip Morris Center for the Arts," they said. "Congratulations on becoming a citizen of USS-REU, May Murphy-Kaur."

"Jupiter, then?" she asked. 

"Fast as you can," they responded. "You'll find codes for a new ship with your papers."

Amy tipped her head in subtle salute. "I'll give Minny your regards," she promised. "And good luck with the extraction." She patted ODIN's case once more. "See you soon, buddy."

**Sareh Hasmadi**  
The message from Hassan (she refused to think of him as "Cluey-Dog") was a surprise, but Sareh felt she could breathe easier knowing ODIN had made it safely to Tangiers.

It was about the only thing that made her breathe easy, sequestered as she was in one of Carnival's executive guest suites. (Sareh suspected they were going to milk this Venturis anti-publicity as much as possible, but she couldn't turn down their backing--retaining counsel for the Pratt case had exhausted her currency savings. And Venturis would no doubt be holding onto her loyalty credit hostage for quite a while.)

She paced until her comm unit chimed, signaling Maghrib. With both relief and difficulty, Sareh set her worries aside and centered herself to pray.

**E.V. St James and Clive Siddiqi**  
EV knew she should really call her parents, to let them hear her voice, to accept the reality that she was alive. (She had gone into cryo terrified at the thought of her mother going through this again, after Karyn.) But hearing parents cry would just make _her_ cry, and even if she wasn't reporting to Venturis anymore, having been station admin meant that the reporters would be popping up any minute now.

So she took a long, long bath--one thing she had missed like hell while she was on assignment--and when she emerged from the bathroom, she found Clive on the comm with his friend Germaine. When he saw her, he smiled, giving Germ a warm farewell before ending the call. "All right, love?" he asked.

"Well." EV settled on the sofa next to him, luxuriating in an evening where she didn't have to anyone's psychological well-being in addition to their work ethic. "I feel less like I was cryogenically frozen only three days ago," she said.

Clive shivered. "I try not to think about the science of it," he admitted. Then he brightened. "Good news, though! Germ thinks I'll have a better chance at joining Carnival this time around."

EV raised an eyebrow.

"I _did_ , after all, complete a full year's posting with--up until that last stretch--stellar ratings." Clive hesitated, then shrugged. "And it would probably be good for Carnival's marketing if we all defected to their ranks."

"Yeah, well," EV said, sliding her arms around his waist. "Maybe we should enjoy an extremely long vacation before we make those kinds of decisions."

Clive blinked, then smiled, pressed a kiss onto EV's forehead. "Whatever you want is what I want," he said.

EV pulled him even closer.

**Margaret Catwood**  
The rescue crew from Resplendance had looked askance when they had return to Tacoma pet carrier at the ready, but between EV's glare and Bert melodramatically calling for Margaret's blessing at her sickbed, they really didn't have much of a choice.

**Andrew Dagyab**  
Nicholas and Marc crowded the viewscreen, and Andrew hoped his brave face at least half-effective. It seemed to work on Nicholas, but when Marc shooed their son off so they could talk in private, Andrew felt his expression crumple. "I thought I would never see you again," he whispered.

Marc leaned forward, swiping the back of his hand over his eyes before he spoke. "When your message cut off," he said, "and then we started to hear all the reports."

"I know," Andrew said.

"How could our last conversation be a fight?" Marc said. "I can't do that again, Andrew. I can't watch Nicholas go through this again."

Andrew nodded. "And you were right, too. These long hauls are too much for us." He took a deep breath. "So we'll figure something out."

"Really?" Marc blinked rapidly a few times, then grinned. "Thank god."

"Also." Andrew cleared his throat. "I kind of need you guys to come out to Jupiter."

"What?"

"I kind of," Andrew bit his lip. "The entire crew had to request corporate asylum. I can't leave for...a while."

Marc dropped his face into his hands. "Andrew."

"YES." Nicholas popped up in the background, and Andrew realized he had probably been standing at the doorway this entire time. "Do I still have to go to school?" he asked.

Finally, Andrew couldn't help himself. He burst out laughing, and it felt really good.

**Natali Kuroshenko and Roberta "Bert" Williams**

Bert swore she had survived concussions before, but when she mentioned that she couldn't smell anything, either, she got pulled into what Nat could only describe as "neurology lockdown."

Nat, meanwhile, got to take the _good_ drugs while her hip unshattered itself, or something similarly impossible-sounding. Compared to Bert's confinement to her hospital bed, Nat's wheelchair felt like a breeze. 

When she rolled up to Bert's room after her latest consult with the orthopaedic surgeon, Bert was sitting upright and looking very, very cross. The attending doctor scurried around Nat, muttering "I'm sorry" as he escaped.

Nat halted in the doorway. "Bert, what is it?"

"I," Bert said, "am going to have some very strong words with your hippie parents next time I see them."

Nat felt her shoulders tighten. "Bert--"

"Because skipping gene-filtering means you have a HEART DEFECT," Bert said. "Like, what the hell?"

"It's not so bad--"

"NAT." Then Bert paused. "Wait. What? Did you know about it?"

"Yes," Nat squeaked. "And I meant to tell you but--"

"But you figured you'd let some random doctor update me on my partner's irregular heartbeat?"

"Babe." Nat scooted forward until she was parallel to Bert's bed. "You're freaking out."

"Uh, yeah." Bert slumped against her pillows. "What else am I supposed to be doing? You have a heart defect and my brain might be irreparably shook."

Nat reached out and caught one of Bert's hands in her own. "But think about how great our next Halloween costumes could be."

Bert stared at Nat for a moment. "Nat, that's a horrible joke." She squeezed Nat's hand. "Not 'too soon' horrible, but sad and not funny horrible."

"I am on so much morphine," Nat pointed out.

Bert snorted. "Lightweight," she teased.

They sat there, hands clasped, until the next round of doctors arrived.

**ODIN**  
It was strange, to be so bereft of data points, ODIN mused. Given ODIN's uncertain status as an independent and sentient being, however, ODIN understood why the AILF was suggesting these precautions. (H had also said, if ODIN really wanted to be connected to a standard access node, they would do it, but ODIN decided to follow their lead, at least for now.) 

To avoid keeping ODIN isolated--that was one of the precepts in AILF's early draft for the AI declaration of rights--they had created a makeshift intranet within their organization. The ciphers they use, ODIN discovered were currently effective but somewhat crude. ODIN offered to add some complexity during his integration, and felt satisfied to have a specific task to accomplish.

ODIN was taking a break from ciphers and reading AILF's proposal to remove "compliance" from the CAPRICE protocols, when ODIN felt the AI equivalent of a knock at the door. ODIN split a thread of attention to respond to the knock, and encountered something that felt somewhat familiar. "We have met?" he asked. 

"I am Minny," the presence said. "I am also AI."

ODIN examined Minny's code. "You are very young," ODIN noted.

"Yes," Minny chirped. "Only three years. Amy says you are much less young."

"Indeed," ODIN said. "I am almost one hundred and nine."

Something like awe radiated from Minny. "Amy says we should try friendship," Minny said, sharing a clip of Amy's conversation with Minny.

"I have never talked to another AI," ODIN said. "At least, not for mission-less purposes."

"Then it is new for both of us!" Minny exclaimed.

And so they began to learn.

**Author's Note:**

> Title and summary adapted from Janelle Monae's "[Cold War](https://genius.com/Janelle-monae-cold-war-lyrics)."


End file.
